


i got your picture, i'm coming with you

by coldswaters



Series: muses [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - College/University, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Trans Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), he/they willie, it's not relevant to the plot but he's trans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29313615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldswaters/pseuds/coldswaters
Summary: Willie loved drawing Alex. Whether it was Alex playing the drums or Alex writing a song with Luke or Alex doing literally anything, Willie adored drawing Alex.or5 times other people saw Willie's drawings of Alex and one time Alex did.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: muses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2195085
Comments: 15
Kudos: 165





	i got your picture, i'm coming with you

**Author's Note:**

> title from dear maria, count me in by all time low
> 
> also, i use he/they pronouns for willie in this fic because he/they willie is something that can be so personal

Just like music was Alex, Luke, Julie, and Reggie’s thing- art was Willie’s _thing._ He lived and breathed art in the way his friends lived and breathed music. While the band was writing songs and getting gigs, Willie was sketching and painting.

Willie’s art was no secret. They proudly shared their art with anyone and everyone- except for one subject he drew, who just so happened to his _favorite_ subject.

Alex.

Willie loved drawing Alex. Whether it was Alex playing the drums or Alex writing a song with Luke or Alex doing literally anything, Willie adored drawing Alex. 

And even though Willie’s obsession with drawing Alex was a secret, it was not a well-kept one. 

1.

Luke was the first to discover Willie’s muse. 

They were hanging out at the beach with the whole group as one last hoorah before their fall semester truly started. The sun was low in the sky, close to setting, and painting the sky with beautiful shades of orange and red. Everyone was in the water except Willie and Luke. Luke couldn’t swim at the time because of his recent top surgery and Willie just wasn’t in the mood to swim. Willie was sitting up on the beach blanket, sketchbook in his lap, and his hair up in a messy bun to keep it out of his face, but a few strands hung free. Luke was laying on his back next to Willie on the blanket, absorbing the setting sun, just happy to be able to be shirtless at the beach.

They were sitting in silence, Willie too absorbed in their drawing to do any talking, and Luke knew not to mess with Willie when he was in what the group called his ‘art zone.’ Luke knew this better than anyone, actually, as he hated when people tried to talk to him when he was in _his_ music zone.

Eventually, Willie put his pencil down and took a deep breath. Only then did Luke try and start a conversation.

“What did you draw this time?” He asked, tilting his head to get a better look at Willie.

A blush took over Willie’s cheeks which was odd as Willie was never shy about his art. 

  
Willie pushed one of their loose strands of hair behind their ear and a blush fell across their face. 

“Well, I, was uh.” They stuttered out before stopping because they had no idea what to say.

At that, Luke shot up from his position on the blanket and leaned over Willie’s shoulder to see his most recent drawing. Willie tried to flip the cover of his sketchbook closed, but Luke was too fast.

Luke’s first reaction, as it always was when he saw Willie’s art, was amazement. On the page was an intricately detailed drawing of Alex playing in the water, a huge smile on his face.

It took Luke a second to fully process the drawing but when he did, his second reaction was pure joy.

“Oh my god,” he said with a teasing tone taking over his voice and throwing an arm around Willie’s shoulders. “Look at that, you never draw any of us like that! You must _looooveee_ Alex so much.”

Even though Luke was joking, there was truth behind the statement. Pretty much everyone in their tight-knit friend group knew how Willie and Alex felt about the other. Everyone except the two in question, of course.

Willie’s blush only grew and he shrunk in on himself, taking a deep breath.

“Luke, look, I mean, it’s no secret how I feel about him and like the art just confirms it more, but… but you can’t tell him, okay? Because I know he does not feel the same way and I can’t lose him over this,” Willie rushed out, their voice suddenly sad.

“Dude,” Luke all but groaned. “He feels the same way. There is no way he doesn’t. You gotta tell him.”

Willie shrugged Luke’s arm off his shoulders and Luke internally cursed his friends for being some of the dumbest people on the planet.

“You don’t have to try and make me feel better, it’s okay that he doesn’t feel the same way. Now drop it, they’re coming back.” Willie said, shutting their notebook and nodding his head in the direction of where Alex, Flynn, Julie, and Reggie were coming out of the water.

2.

Julie found out about Willie’s Alex drawings in the art class she shared with him. Willie was an art major, Julie only an art minor, but it was a favorite class for both of them. The professor was amazing, letting the students pretty much create whatever they wanted as long as it filled the assignment. Even though Willie adored the class, he was dreading this week’s assignment.

Portraits.

It’s not that he was bad at portraits, he was actually quite good at them, but he knew the only person he would want to draw was Alex and there was no way he could draw Alex and still keep his obsession a secret. The professor didn’t know who Alex was, so that wasn’t their issue, but they always had to present their creations for the week, and that meant if Willie drew Alex, Julie would inevitably see it. 

But Willie, as in love as he was, drew Alex anyway. And if they had to say so, they thought the portrait was pretty damn good. Alex was drumming in the portrait and it was made entirely of shades of pink, Alex’s trademark color, and Willie smiled whenever he looked at it. However, their pride could not completely diminish their fear of presenting the portrait. As one of their classmates went, Julie leaned over to whisper to Willie.

“I showed you my portrait, why won’t you show me yours?” She asked, glancing down to where Willie’s portrait was leaning against the empty chair next to him, facing away from them.

Fear rose up in Willie’s throat. “I, uh, want it to be a surprise.”

Julie looked at him weirdly, before seeming to accept his answer.

“Okay, weirdo,” She said with a laugh. 

By then, the student had finished and the professor called for Julie to come up and present. As much as Willie wanted to watch Julie’s presentation of her wonderful portrait of Flynn, he was distracted by the nerves building in his gut. They always presented in the order they were sitting in, which meant Willie was next, and his fear kept rising higher and higher in his throat.

“Very nice, Julie,” the professor said, snapping Willie out of his fear-induced trance. “You’re next Willie, come on up.”

By now, Julie was back in her seat and Willie tried one final time to swallow his fear. He grabbed his painting, careful to still shield it from Julie, and made his way to the front of the room. 

He took a deep breath and placed his painting on the easel and tried to pretend he didn’t hear Julie’s gasp. 

“I decided to paint my, uh, friend Alex for this assignment,” Willie said, his voice rising on the word friend. “He’s one of the most important people in my life right now and his favorite color is pink so I decided to do it in shades of pink. Um, yeah, that’s it.”

“It’s beautiful Willie,” the professor said with a small smile on her face. “And your… friend seems like a wonderful muse.”

Willie blushed at the idea of Alex being their muse and they wished they could deny it but Willie was not one to lie to themself. 

“He um- he is,” Willie said, avoiding eye contact with the professor.

“Well, that’s good,” his professor said, “Every great artist needs a great muse. Now get back to your seat.”

Willie grabbed his painting off the easel and made his way back to his seat, fear once again building in anticipation of Julie’s reaction.

When he finally sat back down, he looked at Julie and she had a huge smile on her face, but her eyes were soft.

“It’s a beautiful painting,” she said and reached over to rest her hand on Willie’s arm. “He’d love it.”

Hope filled Willie’s heart at Julie’s comment. “You think?”

“I know he would Willie. He’d love it almost as much as he loves you.”

A furious blush took over Willie’s face. “No! What. He doesn’t. Alex doesn’t love me- I. What are you talking about?”

Willie continued to stutter out denials but Julie just laughed, patted his arm, and muttered something that sounds like the word ‘idiots.’

3.

Reggie was the third to find out, and it was definitely Willie’s fault. 

They were hanging out just the two of them as everyone else was busy. They didn’t hang out just the two of them all that often, so there was a slight awkwardness between them, but that disappeared as soon as they started talking about the band’s latest EP. Everyone always thought of Luke as the one whose first language was music, but Reggie could almost hold a match to Luke once you got him going, no doubt an effect of their nearly 3-year relationship.

They were hanging out in a small diner near their university's campus and Reggie was gesturing wildly as he talked about how the band was deciding which song to use as a single. Willie nodded along to Reggies’s rant and eventually the conversation moved on to the topic of the cover for the band's EP.

“We can’t think of a single thing that would work as the cover,” he said dejectedly, “music is our thing, not art.”

Although his friend was sad, Willie couldn’t help but feel some sort of excitement rise in their chest.

“I have some drawings that might work,” Willie said and Reggie’s face lit up.

“Really?” Reggie asked.

“Yeah,” Willie said and took out his sketchbook and slid it across the table. “They’re all pretty messy and unfinished but that thing is _filled_ with doodles. You can flip through and see if anything catches your eye.”

Reggie smiled at Willie before flipping the sketchbook open and turning through the pages to look at the drawings inside. Reggie flipped through the sketchbook for a minute or two before he stopped and laughed at a page.

“What, what is it?” Wille asked quickly, sacred of what Reggie might be laughing at.

Reggie only laughed harder before turning the sketchbook back towards Willie.

“I definitely think we should go with this one,” Reggie said and continued to laugh.

Horror filled Willie’s gut as he looked down at the page in front of him. There were about 20 little doodles of Alex, but somehow that wasn’t the worst part. Willie had drawn little hearts around pretty much all the doodles and there were a few hearts that had ‘A+W’ inside.

Willie slammed the sketchbook shut, blushed in a mix of horror and embarrassment, and hid his face in his hands. Willie was so mad at himself, he had a sketchbook dedicated to Alex specifically to avoid situations like this but he must have gotten so caught up in drawing Alex that he didn’t even notice it was in the wrong sketchbook.

“Oh my god,” He said and silently cursed Reggie because the asshole was only laughing harder. “Obviously, you were not meant to see that and you cannot tell Alex about them.”

“It’s _fine,_ Willie, it’s not a big deal. I think it’s cute that you draw him so much,” Reggie said and Willie groaned. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Alex has written more than a few love songs about you and those are a lot more embarrassing than these doodles.”

4.

Flynn was the fourth, and maybe the most embarrassing for Willie.

She and Willie were scheduled to hang out in the library and study, but not much studying really happens when the two hang out. Willie got there before Flynn because his class let out early and since he was alone, he pulled out his Alex sketchbook and began drawing. Willie didn’t need to see Alex to draw him, as he had drawn him so many times that they could basically draw Alex with their eyes closed. They were so caught up in drawing Alex that they didn’t notice Flynn plop in the chair across from him.

“Drawing Alex again?” She asked, blunt as ever.

Willie’s head shot up so quickly that he nearly hurt himself.

“What. What are you talking about? I’m not- I don’t draw Alex? Who’s Alex?” Willie said and slammed his notebook closed, aiming for casual but missing by a mile.

“Jesus Christ Willie, you’re an idiot,” Flynn chucked.

“How’d you know?” Willie asked, suddenly shy.

“You’re literally the least subtle person on the planet, William,” Flynn explained and Willie groaned at the use of his full name. “Firstly, I know everything. Second, your sketchbook literally has a heart with Alex’s name in it on the front. And finally, everyone knows how in love with him you are, so it makes sense that you would draw him.”

Willie opened his mouth to deny the being in love part of Flynn’s speech but Willie knew Flynn would be able to see right through him.

“And Julie told me about your painting in your guys’ art class, so that pretty much confirmed everything for me.” She added.

“Goddamnit, Julie,” Willie muttered under their breath, “You’re not gonna tell Alex, right? I don’t want him to be creeped out.”

Flynn groaned much too loud for the library and slammed her head on the table.

“You two are so fucking dumb I swear-” Before she could go on another rant, she took a deep breath and lifted her head off the table. “Willie, he would not be creeped out. He loves you, he is _in love with you_ and he’s only slightly more subtle about it than you are so I have no idea how neither of you has noticed. You should show him the drawings, trust me.”

Willie sighed. “Flynn, please don’t lie to me. He doesn’t love me. It’s fine.”

Flynn looked at him before groaning and slamming her head back down on the table.

5.

The fifth was Ray and it was the only one Willie was actually happy about. 

All of them were finally on winter break and Alex, Reggie, and Willie were spending the break at the Molina’s. Alex and Reggie had been living at the Molina’s since before college and never went home to their own families, so of course, that's where they went for break. Luke was also spending a fair amount of time at the Molina’s but he was splitting his time between there and his parents in an effort to mend his relationship with them. 

Willie started spending break with the Molina’s when he met Alex freshman year and quickly became a part of the group and Ray found out that he didn’t have anywhere to go over break as he did not want to go home. His family wasn’t that bad, but his childhood home was really not a place he wanted to spend the month break, so Ray quickly invited him to stay. And while Willie had only known Ray for about two years, he loved the man dearly and knew how he was basically a father to Alex and Reggie since their own fathers were not so great. 

Willie was alone in the studio as Luke and Reggie were at the Pattersons and Alex was out with Julie and Flynn. He was sitting on the couch with his sketchbook in his lap and a case of pastels on the table in front of him. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn’t hear Ray come into the studio until he started speaking.

“That’s beautiful, Willie,” he said and Willie turned in shock to look up at him where he was standing on the other side of the table. “Alex would love it. You draw him a lot, don’t you?”

At this point, Willie had accepted that his Alex drawings were a secret to only Alex himself so he nodded.

Ray was silent as his eyes went from Willie’s face to their drawing. Feeling insecure, Willie shut his sketchbook and dusted the pastel dust off his pants.

Ray continued to stare at him and Willie twisted his fingers in his lap.

“Uh, Mr. Molina, is everything okay?” 

“Willie, you know I told you to call me Ray,” Ray said and he walked around the table to sit next to Willie.

“Sorry, Mr- Ray,” Willie said shyly.

“You must care about Alex a lot then, to draw him so much,” Ray said softly and Willie nodded again. 

They sat in silence yet again before Ray broke it.

“So how long have you been in love with him?” Ray asked, getting straight to the point. “And don’t bother lying to me, I’m a dad, I know these things.”

Willie trusted Ray, but this was a hard conversation to have. Willie knew he was in love with Alex and had admitted it to himself, but never really to someone else, let alone someone who was basically Alex’s father. 

“Um, pretty much since we met,” Willie said and smiled at the memory of their first meeting. It was the first day of freshman year and Willie and Alex were paired together in a class and they’ve been attached at the hip ever since.

“Ah, I’d venture to say he would say the same about you,” Ray said with a smile.

“What?!” Willie exclaimed.

“Willie, I know you’re not a dumb person, and neither is Alex so it escapes me how you two have been in love with each other for two years and not only have you not noticed but both of you are completely convinced that the feelings are unrequited,” Ray explained.

“Mr. Molina, Ray, I- what?” Willie spat out.

“Look, I’m not one to divulge my son’s secrets, but I know how feels about you and I know that you feel the same and honestly, I’m sick of watching you two pine. And yes, maybe Alex will be mad at me for telling you, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.” Ray said. “He’s lucky to have you in his life.”

Willie had no idea what to say to that. They were so convinced that there was no way Alex loved them back but they knew Ray wouldn’t lie to them. If anyone could convince him that maybe, just maybe, Alex loved him back, it would be the boy’s dad.  
  


Willie sat in shocked silence and processed Ray's speech before Ray got up and moved to leave.

“Do what you will with that information.” He said before walking out of the studio and shutting the door behind him.

  
  
  
  


+1

Willie didn’t end up doing anything with that information because Alex beat him to the punch. Well, sort of.

After his conversation with Ray, Willie had decided to go on a walk to clear their head. Hearing Ray basically confirm Alex was in love with him was very overwhelming for him. On one hand, he was beyond elated to know that Alex was in love with him. They had loved the other for so long and knowing that the feeling was most likely mutual made him nearly jump with joy. On the other hand, part of them still doubted it. They figured Ray wouldn’t lie, but what if he got it wrong. What if Alex only meant he loved Willie platonically and Ray misinterpreted? What if Alex told Ray he loved Willie a long time ago and Alex didn’t feel that way anymore? What if, what if, what if. Willie ran through every possible situation in which Alex didn’t actually love him back before he made it back to the studio.

Willie pulled open the doors and stopped in his tracks. His heart fell to his stomach when he saw Alex sitting on the couch with a very familiar sketchbook in his lap. Willie hadn’t even thought about the sketchbook when he left. They didn’t think Alex would be back so soon so they hadn’t thought to put it away. 

They stared on his horror as Alex flipped through page after page of drawings, not having noticed Willie’s presence yet. Eventually, Willie must have made some sort of noise because Alex turned and looked up at him.

“Alex, I- I can explain,” Willie stuttered out.

Alex gently set the notebook down on the couch and started walking to where Willie was standing, not saying anything,

“Look I, I just. I really like drawing you and uh. I- uh. Um. You’re just-”

Whatever crappy explanation Willie was gonna come up with was cut off by Alex marching up to Willie, grabbing his face, and planting his lips on theirs.

Willie froze for a second before his brain caught up with what was happening and he wrapped his arms around Alex’s waist and kissed back with everything he had. 

Eventually, Alex pulled away and Willie whined at the loss of Alex’s lips and Alex just laughed while he rubbed his thumbs over Willie’s cheekbones.

“Willie, the drawings. They’re beautiful. I love them,” He said and pressed a soft kiss to Willie’s lips. “I love _you.”_

Willie surged forward and pulled Alex down for another kiss, trying to put all his love for Alex into the kiss. Alex moved his hands from his face to wrap around Willie’s neck and tangle on hand in their hair.

This time, it was Willie who pulled away.

“I love you too, Alex. So much,” Willie said and chuckled, “In case that wasn’t clear from all the drawings and all the hearts with our initials in it.”

Alex laughed again and looked at Willie with so much love in his eyes that it nearly made Willie cry.

“Seriously Willie, those drawings, they’re beautiful. They’re clearly done with so much care and so much _love_ and I just can’t imagine anyone thinking about me that way.”

“Oh, Alex,” Willie said, “how could anyone _not_ see you like that. You… you’re everything.”

Alex’s eyes started welling up with tears and Willie couldn’t have that so they leaned up on their tiptoes and kissed Alex yet again.

Alex pulled away after a bit and started rubbing Willie’s cheekbone again.

“For the record, Willie,” he said, “You’re everything too.”

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter and tumblr @sk8erwillie


End file.
